For those thinking about going to optometry school in the UK or abroad and returning via IOBP significant changes to the program seem inevitable.
OAO Executive Summary on IOBP (released July 22, 2011; Dr. Freddo, director of UWSO resigned June 23 due to internal discord within UWSO)
The OAO has always supported the integration of International Optometric Graduates (IOGs) into the profession. We believe that this is best done through a program that ensures that all IOGs have the knowledge, skill, and judgment equivalent to current graduates of North American optometry schools in a manner which is transparent, objective, impartial, and fair.
The OAO does not support the continuation of the International Optometric Bridging Program
(IOBP) at the University of Waterloo School of Optometry (UWSO) in its current format.
To our knowledge, the IOBP has accepted students with substantially less education than North American optometry graduates and has deemed their training to be equivalent, or nearly equivalent. In doing so, we believe that the IOBP cannot, in either 8 weeks (Bridging 1) or in one year (Bridging 2), be effective in graduating IOGs who will consistently be on par with Canadian and
US graduates. Indeed, US optometry schools with international programs require their IOGs to complete between two and four years of a full time program tomeet the academic requirements for registration.
Our position is based on one of the OAOs key governing principles:
EDUCATION
High educational standards:
a. Provide Ontario optometrists with the foundation to give the best in primary eye
and vision care to the citizens of our province.
b. Are instrumental in building the optometry brand as we continue to integrate
optometry into primary healthcare teams.
c. Are critical for scope expansion. In Ontario, our educational background was reviewed before optometrists were granted the authority to prescribe TPAs, including the independent management of glaucoma. Optometrists educational standards will also be important considerations in any future requests for scope expansion and/or other privileges.
The IOBP is not the discontinued two-year program that UWSO alumni may recall whereby IOGs were integrated into the third and fourth years of optometryschool and received a Doctor of Optometry degree upon completion of that
program.
We do not support the admission of non-optometrists into the profession of optometry. The program was intended for optometrists, yet we understand that nearly half of IOGs are ophthalmologists.
Ontario Dentistry has similar professional and educational requirements to optometry. Most internationally-trained dentists require a two year, degree completion program to meet the educational requirements to practice in Canada.
A critical component of determining whether a foreign-trained applicant may access a profession is academic credentialing. This process determines how a foreign-trained applicants previous education compares to that of a North
American-trained professional. Publicly available information confirms that the
College of Optometrists of Ontario has been unable to obtain the data required to determine if the IOBPs credentialing method is impartial and objective.
Without transparency from the IOBP, there is insufficient evidence that IOGs have the
educational requirements necessary to practice optometry in Ontario. This is of greater concern now that Ontarios optometrists currently have the widest scope of practice in Canada.
The Ontario government has helped fund the IOBP as it did for other programs that successfully applied for government funding. One criterion considered bythe Government to be important when evaluating applications for funding of a
bridging program was the demonstration that such a program would help alleviate
a manpower shortage. Even though a government-funded report in the late 1990s projected an adequate supply of optometrists in Ontario until the year 2020 (prior to UWSO increasing its enrollment by 50%), the IOBP funding proposal
(submitted in 2004) stated:
Ontario needs optometrists Ultimately, the proposed program will result in a
higher number of IOGs successfully registering and practicing in Ontario and
ensure that the optometric needs of the public are met.
The Government of Ontario did not mandate the creation of the IOBP. However,
the Government did legislate, in 2006, that Ontarios regulatory bodies remove
unnecessary barriers for immigrants seeking registration in their chosen
profession by ensuring that registration processes are transparent, objective, impartial, and fair.
The OAO does not believe that any of those four criteria have been adequately
met. Thus, we do not believe that the IOBP should be permitted to continue in its
current form.
For complete details:
http://library.constantcontact.com/d...6/IOBP_FAQ.pdf
OAO Executive Summary on IOBP (released July 22, 2011; Dr. Freddo, director of UWSO resigned June 23 due to internal discord within UWSO)
The OAO has always supported the integration of International Optometric Graduates (IOGs) into the profession. We believe that this is best done through a program that ensures that all IOGs have the knowledge, skill, and judgment equivalent to current graduates of North American optometry schools in a manner which is transparent, objective, impartial, and fair.
The OAO does not support the continuation of the International Optometric Bridging Program
(IOBP) at the University of Waterloo School of Optometry (UWSO) in its current format.
To our knowledge, the IOBP has accepted students with substantially less education than North American optometry graduates and has deemed their training to be equivalent, or nearly equivalent. In doing so, we believe that the IOBP cannot, in either 8 weeks (Bridging 1) or in one year (Bridging 2), be effective in graduating IOGs who will consistently be on par with Canadian and
US graduates. Indeed, US optometry schools with international programs require their IOGs to complete between two and four years of a full time program tomeet the academic requirements for registration.
Our position is based on one of the OAOs key governing principles:
EDUCATION
High educational standards:
a. Provide Ontario optometrists with the foundation to give the best in primary eye
and vision care to the citizens of our province.
b. Are instrumental in building the optometry brand as we continue to integrate
optometry into primary healthcare teams.
c. Are critical for scope expansion. In Ontario, our educational background was reviewed before optometrists were granted the authority to prescribe TPAs, including the independent management of glaucoma. Optometrists educational standards will also be important considerations in any future requests for scope expansion and/or other privileges.
The IOBP is not the discontinued two-year program that UWSO alumni may recall whereby IOGs were integrated into the third and fourth years of optometryschool and received a Doctor of Optometry degree upon completion of that
program.
We do not support the admission of non-optometrists into the profession of optometry. The program was intended for optometrists, yet we understand that nearly half of IOGs are ophthalmologists.
Ontario Dentistry has similar professional and educational requirements to optometry. Most internationally-trained dentists require a two year, degree completion program to meet the educational requirements to practice in Canada.
A critical component of determining whether a foreign-trained applicant may access a profession is academic credentialing. This process determines how a foreign-trained applicants previous education compares to that of a North
American-trained professional. Publicly available information confirms that the
College of Optometrists of Ontario has been unable to obtain the data required to determine if the IOBPs credentialing method is impartial and objective.
Without transparency from the IOBP, there is insufficient evidence that IOGs have the
educational requirements necessary to practice optometry in Ontario. This is of greater concern now that Ontarios optometrists currently have the widest scope of practice in Canada.
The Ontario government has helped fund the IOBP as it did for other programs that successfully applied for government funding. One criterion considered bythe Government to be important when evaluating applications for funding of a
bridging program was the demonstration that such a program would help alleviate
a manpower shortage. Even though a government-funded report in the late 1990s projected an adequate supply of optometrists in Ontario until the year 2020 (prior to UWSO increasing its enrollment by 50%), the IOBP funding proposal
(submitted in 2004) stated:
Ontario needs optometrists Ultimately, the proposed program will result in a
higher number of IOGs successfully registering and practicing in Ontario and
ensure that the optometric needs of the public are met.
The Government of Ontario did not mandate the creation of the IOBP. However,
the Government did legislate, in 2006, that Ontarios regulatory bodies remove
unnecessary barriers for immigrants seeking registration in their chosen
profession by ensuring that registration processes are transparent, objective, impartial, and fair.
The OAO does not believe that any of those four criteria have been adequately
met. Thus, we do not believe that the IOBP should be permitted to continue in its
current form.
For complete details:
http://library.constantcontact.com/d...6/IOBP_FAQ.pdf
